I just got back from a trip to Boston Acoustics to visit my car (they've had it for a couple of months upgrading the system-click here for my initial thread on the install ) and have a whole new appreciation for the company after taking a tour of it's state-of-the-art facilities. In addition to the design, engineering and marketing of their speakers, they also manufacture several lines in the same building. I felt like a kid in a candy store with speakers (both car and home) all over the place, but since they are already doing me a huge favor in installing my system, I have no right to complain that I couldn't pick just one "sample" pair to take home with me!

Now the reason for this post is because I was able to speak to the "resident" installer (Dave) and a couple of the engineers of their speakers at length. As has been posted before, the "stock" speakers are bad. Trust me, you couldn't get $2 for the pair at a garage sale. But the important thing is the factory grill and the location of the factory door speakers.

As you should be able to see from the picture below, only about 2/3 of the grill is perforated (the non-perforated section is almost in the middle of the grill!). In addition, when new speakers are mounted in the "stock" location (including a "spacer"), they will also be eclipsed by the door panel unless you build a new enclosure in the door. And even though the "tweeter" (for lack of a better word) is located higher up in the door, the total sound will still be hindered considerably. Just something you should think about when you do upgrade your front speakers.



This is a picture of the enclosure that was built out of MDF for the front speakers (BA's Z6). The tweeter was removed and placed where the stock tweeter was.



This is a picture of some of BAs speakers that were just lying around the install bay. I wish I had thrown a stock speaker into the picture to compare against them (the magnet was about half the size of the cheapest speaker in the picture below), but you should be able to compare from the picture above. The speakers from left to right (also in MSRP price) are the:Z6, $1000/pair, Pro-Series 6.5, $450/pair, RC 620 (I believe)$299/pair and the FX6, $119.95/pair. or the FS20, $219.95/pair.

 

I love my Boston Pro and I'm chopping at the bit for my dealer to get their first set of reference Z6 speakers. My dealer was going to call tomorrow to order my Boston Pro 10 sub and inquire about the Z6s. I love my Pro 6.5s (had them in my older car powered by a PPI Powerclass amp) and now they are already in my Z and will be powered by an xtant amp pushing around 130watts @ 3 ohms. If the reference speakers are what I'm told, they will be in my Z as soon as the dealer gets them.

 

Here's one more shot that was taken at BA. It is the center console which houses the Alpine 760 monitor, the Alpine 7996 CD/DVD HU and the Alpine PXA-H510 (Dolby Digital processor). It also has the BEL 875LR remote radar detector mounted flush, in front of the monitor (it's about a 45 degree angle). It was initially supposed to be installed up in the sunglasses holder, but wasn't a good fit. This ends up being a better location as I can shut the Nav door if I happen to get pulled over. Also the PXA-H510 will (hopefully) be replaced by the new Alpine PXA-H700 (Dolby Digital, DTS, Prologic II, 31 Band EQ, etc) if I can get one in the next week or so, although it isn't being released until the end of February...

 

AWESOME!! Your a lucky dude....

 

Yeah, my wife tells me that just about everyday! Actually I do realize how lucky I am, and since they will be taking the car to a couple of shows and possibly shooting it for a magazine, they really spared no expense in the quality of the wires, cables and installation. The installer is really detail oriented and is very well respected in the industry (previously he worked for Tweeter, etc.) and has been with BA for ~6 years. And since I wasn't planning on using the car during the winter anyway, they don't have to "rush" the car in and out like a normal shop that must make money.

On the other hand it is a two way street. When they tell me I need to buy an Optima Battery for the car, I have to buy one. I did have to purchase most of the electronics for the car with the exception of the amps, speakers, etc. So far I have spent ~$5000 on electronics, but you still won't hear me complain.

 

How much are they going to charge u for installation

 

hmmmm i have the same alpine screen for my nav.
I was wondering whether the Alpine HU will send screen displays to the screen.

So is is just the dvd output? or screen info too?

BTW, my tme-760 wont diplay any other channels with the car moving, is there a "hack" around this??

 

At least one, maybe two cases of Sam Adams Winterfest beer, if they get the rearview camera in!
The HU does send "displays" to the monitor for the DVD player (the audio goes through the processor and breaks up the signal into the 5.1 channels and then out to the amps) but I believe the Nav is completely responsible for the video signal to the monitor (as well as the camera).

As far as the "hack" you mentioned, [the most annoying whining voice you know] it would be too dangerous to have a DVD playing while you are driving [/the most annoying whining voice you know], but I suppose you could put a "ground" switch in the lead to the emergency brake (at least for the Alpine)... I'm pretty sure this was discussed here a while ago or possibly another board. Most installers know the way around it, but are concerned about the liability. PM Nazar and he may be able to "explain the theory" behind it.

 

So the MDF that was used for the door speakers fix the issue of not being completely in the opening for the door panel?

I would love to get my hands on a set of those...

Mike

 

Yes, the MDF door enclosure did correct the alignment problem of the door panel not being centered. Here's a picture showing the alignment problem. In addition the panel also "bends" in toward the bottom of the speaker, so while the bottom of the speaker is flush with the door panel, the top of the speaker ends up being away from the door by ~1-2". By the way I am not criticizing this install job at all - it just illustrates what a horrible job Nissan did in lining up the speaker with the door panel.



So the enclosure they made, not only centered the speaker, but also changed the angle of the speaker in relation to the door panel. They did have to do a little metal cutting in order to accomodate the new location. This picture shows a silver ring they had made to match the other silver on the door, but the jury is still out as to what the final look will be. The picture doesn't really do it justice as the flash reflected off the ring and the angle of the picture makes it appear that it's not centered (due to the bump out of the door panel), but the ring looks completely stock and is definitely centered around the speaker.



Another thing to consider when using "spacers" to bring the speaker away from the door window is that they do cover up more of the back "basket" of the speaker than it was designed for (which is flush mounted). After seeing all of the problems properly mounting speakers in the door, I now understand Nizl's Solution.

 

How's the midbass response out of this setup? Also is that using the door as the enclosure or is there a back on that MDF. One more question, does dynamat seal the door for good midbass response?

 

Unfortunately I still haven't heard the system yet, as I am waiting for the new Alpine processor (PXA-H700) to come in. The system is up and running (with the H510 processor) and I have been told the sound is excellent, and that is without any tuning of the crossovers, etc. As far as the enclosure goes, it is open to the back. The MDF "spacer" was only used to correctly "align" the speaker with the hole in the door panel. I have no doubt the Dynamat seals the door for optimum sound. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

Anyone2u, can you please fix your image links?
Thanks for the great thread!

Pv

 

Anyone2u..can you provide me some info on my sl65's?? how do you think they'll sound in the rear? are these a Tweeter only model?? and finally what BA components do you recomed for the fronts??